Schools
Emdee and Avrick Roll in School Board Race
Both finished with 40 percent of the vote in the city's first all-mail election.
Anita Avrick and Laura Emdee breezed to victory in Tuesday’s election, earning seats on the Redondo Beach Unified School District Board of Education.
Avrick and Emdee each took 40 percent of the vote and defeated Arda Clark for the two vacant school board seats. Avrick was the top vote-getter with 4,985 ballots. Emdee finished with 4,965, and Clark received 2,458.
Avrick and Emdee celebrated their victory together at a campaign party on Gibson Place while the results were announced on streaming video from City Hall. They credited their network of friends and their campaign focus on personal relations.
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“It’s all about the personal touch,” Emdee said. “I gave my signs to all my friends and they gave them to all their friends. And it just kind of grew from there. I really believe that everyone in Redondo Beach is connected somehow.”
Avrick added, “I think we worked very hard making a lot of personal contacts.”
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Among the personal contacts in attendance at the celebration party was City Councilman Matt Kilroy, who ran unopposed in Tuesday’s election.
City Councilman Pat Aust also ran unopposed, and so did City Clerk Eleanor Manzano and City Treasurer Ernie O’Dell.
This was the city’s first ever all-mail election, and Manzano described the results as “awesome.”
Ballots mailed or turned in personally totaled 8,048, more than the previous two school board elections, Manzano said. In 2009, 7,052 people voted, and in 2007, about 6,800 people voted.
Manzano estimated that the city saved about $30,000 holding the election exclusively by mail and without opening polling places for the day.
Out of 41,539 registered voters, 19.3 percent cast ballots.
“That’s incredible for a school board election,” said Manzano, adding that the final results will be announced Thursday because about 430 ballots were turned in after 2 p.m. Tuesday and so the signatures must all be verified.
Emdee and Avrick will be sworn in at the March 22 Board of Education meeting.
Reached for comment on the election results, Clark said, “I'm naturally disappointed to have lost, but I wish Laura Emdee and Anita Avrick, as well as the Redondo Beach Unified School District, all the best.”
